Princess Taylor

Phil sent me this picture today after lunch:

Along with it was the following message:

"I think we may have spoiled dogs.  Hope we are better with our kids."

I'm sorry, is it not normal for dogs to take over entire sofas and lounge on pillows with their paws crossed?  Because that would be news to her.

And I love that she isn't even on the blanket that has been so carefully positioned on the couch so ask to keep dog hair off the neighboring cushions.

Personally, I think she looks pissed no one is fanning her and hand feeding pieces of kibble to her.

She's in for a RUDE awakening when Baby Janney arrives.  Better enjoy it while it lasts, lady.

Puppy Cuddles

Cotton decided to be the cutest puppy EVER last night.

-  He was so excited when I got home, that he wouldn't stay at the front door and wait for me to get inside.  He started walking towards me.  He isn't supposed to walk out the front door, but he was doing it only to come see me.  It was so cute.

-  When I laid down because my head was killing me (stupid allergies), he decided to jump up and sit in the crook of my legs.  Eventually he laid down and rested his head on the side of my knees.

-  When I was finishing eating, he crawled up beside me and PRESSED himself as hard as he could into my side.  There couldn't be any air in between us.

-  I went to bed at about 9 last night.  When I walked up the stairs, he stood at the bottom of the steps, staring at me like, "Momma... where are you going?" then bounded up after me.  Phil put him on the bed and he immediately began rearranging the covers so he could lay down RIGHT next to me.  And there he slept for the next 2 hours, until he heard Phil feed Taylor.

It was my goal to be asleep by 10, but I couldn't get enough of the puppy cuddles.  Usually, he doesn't stay upstairs with me.  He doesn't want to risk missing out on something happening downstairs like the rare chance Taylor will be in the mood to play with him.

But last night, it was all about me and him.  So I did nothing by cuddle and read The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding while watching Friday Night Lights and Baby Janney took a kickboxing class in my uterus.

What to Write?

Blogging has been a bit of a challenge for me lately.  It's a combination of things, really which I will now outline for you (because I know you want to know):

1.  I'm tired.  Like all of the time.  And if we are being honest, I've been tired for almost 2 years, since my thyroid started going bananas.  If you've never dealt with thyroid issues, then you'll just have to believe me when I say it messes with your sleep.  I was just starting to feel great and sleep again when I got pregnant (maybe that had something to do with it, who knows).  I'm not complaining about being pregnant, but more stating a fact that I'm tired and that usually means when I get home I am lucky to get one thing done.  I haven't even touched my computer at home in like 2 weeks.  And I haven't even had the energy to download the pictures and share about the AMAZING baby shower my best friend and sister-in-law threw for me this weekend.  I need to do that.

2.  I'm experiencing a lot of emotions these days.  I wasn't moody/hormonal in the beginning of my pregnancy and I think now I am making up for it.  Poor Phil.  He's handling it like a champ.  But I haven't exactly felt like writing about how I've been feeling.  And it is partially because I'm afraid to admit it and also because it's hard to be vulnerable and open sometimes.  And I worry that people won't want to read about it.

3.  Since I've been too tired to do much, I haven't gotten a lot of progress done on the nursery so I can't blog about that.  And I'm not sure people want to read about my feelings, so I haven't felt like blogging about that.  That pretty much leaves blogging about my dogs.  And I REALLY don't think a ton of people enjoy reading about them as much as they ought to.  They are pretty cool dogs.  I mean, seriously... if you met them, you'd love them.  Everyone does.  I constantly have offers from people to keep Taylor, because she is that good and sweet of a dog.  And Cotton has turned my parents (who are NOT animal people) into his biggest fans. My mom even said she'd come to the dog park with me.  That's unheard of.

Why wouldn't you read to read about this:

Taylor takes the term "loveseat" a little literally, laying all seductively for Cotton.  And it worked:

Dog make-out sesh, on the loveseat.


Why anyone wouldn't be thoroughly entertained by the exploits of our dogs is beyond me.  But whatever.  People can't find the simple joy in things I guess.

Anyway... I've decided that I am going to spend a little time to write a variety of blog posts.  Some will include the teeny tiny baby-steps worth of progress we have made on the nursery.  Some will include the emotional roller-coaster I have been on.  Some will include my new obsession with jars and my dogs.  Whatever.  It's my blog and I can write whatever I want, right?  :)

A Middle Name

While we may not know for certain what Baby Janney's first name will be, we have known for A LONG time what his middle name would be.  I'm pretty sure we both knew what our first born son's middle name would be without ever needing to discuss it.  It was just that clear.

Nicholas

I'm not sure how much I have mentioned it on this blog in the past, but Phil has an older brother named Nicholas (for clarifying purposes, I have an older brother named Nicolas without the "h").  He died about 6 years ago in a car accident.  I think he was almost 26 when he died.

We've always known that this little boy's middle name would be Nicholas, after the uncle that both he and I will never get to meet on Earth.


I met Phil the year after his brother had died.  And while I haven't been around the family long enough to see all of the grieving, I have definitely seen a lot of it.  As anyone can imagine, it has been a long process which I don't think has been made any easier with Phil's dad's Liver Cancer being in the picture.

Yesterday was Nick's birthday.  He would have been 32.  Every year for his birthday, Phil and I go out and have a nice steak dinner (since that is something his brother enjoyed doing).  This year, his birthday falls on a night when we have our Bradley class, so our dinner had to be postponed.

So when it comes to Baby Janney's name, here's what we have so far:

_______ Nicholas Janney

Two-thirds of the way there.

5 Things Friday

Oh Friday... you are beautiful.  Sunny weather (although still chilly) and my baby shower is tomorrow!!  I'm so excited.  Hopefully I remember to bring my camera so I can get lots of pictures.  And even though Wednesday's post was completely random and full of non-sense, I decided to put together a list of some random things that happened this week.

1.  I saw this guy heading down the street yesterday afternoon.

I know the picture is hard to see, but he's wearing long athletic pants, tucked in to some tall moccasin boots, riding a segway (with a helmet, of course), and he's smoking a cigarette (not pictured).  We were both stopped at a stop light, so I HAD to take a picture.  It just isn't something you see every day.

2.  I'm having a current love affair with mason jars right now.  It has something to do with the fact that my sister-in-law got me a Cuppow.  Phil affectionately calls it my adult sippy cup.  Whatever.  I love it.

3.  I'm also extremely into hot tea right now.  Chamomile and decaf English tea (with milk and sugar) are my current must haves.  It's been a good way to still get my liquids without a lot of calories.  And it's relaxing at the same time.  Of course, the tea must be drank in a mason jar.  :)

4.  I made the brilliant move to wear white shirts 3 days in a row this week.  I should have known I would spill on myself at least once if I wore them that much.  So what happened Wednesday?

Dripped tomato juice from my sandwich right onto my belly.  Smooth.

5.  My newest television obsession:  The Americans.  Of course, it took me most of the first episode to realize the protagonists were Russian spies (cause I'm smart like that).  It's ok... I've got it now.  I'm afraid to watch too many episodes at once though because I think it will take my pregnancy dreams to a WHOLE new level and I don't really need that.  I believe that if they wanted to make the show a little more '80s authentic, they would have made Keri Russell wear her hair all crazy curly.  But whatever.  Small details.

My Hippy is Showing: Cloth Diapers

Even though almost everyone around me thinks I'm crazy, I'm pretty resolved in my convictions to cloth diaper.

If I were to breakdown my decisions making process on this topic for you, I would say it is about 85% about cost and 15% about the environment.

It wasn't until I really started looking into cloth diapering vs. disposables that I also found out that cloth diapered babies have fewer diaper rashes and potty-train about 12 months sooner (Joanna actually pointed that one out to me).  I also learned that cloth diapers usually lead to fewer "blow-outs" and that while there seems to be this general idea that if you cloth diaper, you end up handling poop all the time.  Most of my research into cloth diapering has shown that you actually deal with less poop with clothe.

Honestly, the handling poop thing doesn't bother me too much.  Cotton has literally pooped IN MY HAND.  It was not solid.  Like 2 weeks ago I had to wash poop out of Cotton's butt hair.  And dog poop smells so much worse than baby poop in my experience.  That's enough about that.

I thought I would have a hard time convincing Phil that we should cloth diaper and was shocked that he really didn't think it was a crazy idea.  Maybe it's the toxicologist in him, but he was fine with contributing less waste to the local incinerator.  Then I thought FOR SURE we would have to use disposables on the babe at the daycare he will be going to.  Nope.  They will cloth diaper him if we want them to.

I was shocked.  And totally sold.  I think cloth diapering is coming back into fad.

I spent hours online doing research, traded research information with another mom-to-be in our Bradley Class, and was largely swayed by Ashley's experience with cloth diapering her twin girls.  After everything I have looked at, I decided we will go with Flip Diapers.

Ok... So I had my diaper choice figured out.  That was step 1.  Then I thought well what about wipes?  How did reusable wipes work?  If I used disposable wipes, would I have a diaper pale and a garbage can in the nursery?

Thanks to the previously mentioned mom-to-be in our Bradley Class, I had a general idea of what you needed to do reusable wipes.  I still figured I would do disposables.  Cue another few hours of research. I decided if I was going to do the cloth diaper thing, I might as well go all out and use reusable wipes as well.

{Reusable wipes from AsYouStitchBaby on Etsy}

So last night, I really dove into the whole cloth diapering thing and bought a couple of the essentials that we will need:  2 wet bags (one for the diaper bag and one for daycare) and the reusable wipes.  I'm hoping to get the clothe diapers at my baby shower this weekend.

A couple of built-in caveats here:
1.  I don't think we will be cloth diapering exclusively, 100% of the time.  When we travel, we will use disposables.  There's no way I am getting on a plane and staying at a hotel with a bag full of poopy diapers.  Or camping?  Yeah no.  And depending what size Baby Janney is at birth, we will most likely be using disposable until he exceeds 8 lbs (which I kind of think he might do on his own from the beginning).

2.  I reserve the right to change my mind completely at any given point.  However, the fact that I'm cheap plays a pretty big role here.  If I do decide to switch to disposables, it will be because we have suddenly come into some money and/or the convenience of disposables beats out my cheapness/environment conscious (which is entirely possible).

HOWEVER, I feel like I will stick with cloth diapering just because my family thinks I'm crazy for doing it.  I'm stubborn like that.  :)

If you have any questions about cloth diapering, shoot me an e-mail or comment.  Obviously I don't have the hands-on experience yet, but I can point you towards the information I have found.  I know I have lots of questions like How do you wash them?  Got that one figured out.

Mid-Week Randomness

I've had even more blog silence than I normally do the last couple of days.  Honestly, we spent the weekend staying home, away from the ever-growing amount of sick people.  Phil and I each had a list of things we needed to get done.  His included one nursery project and some work.  My "list" involved reading a book for our Bradley class.

I made it through the book.  But that is hardly anything to blog about.  BELIEVE ME.  It was one of those books that was twice as long as it needed to be.  Similar to Twilight, in my opinion.  It's actually a book for the husbands to read, but Phil is so crazy busy right now, he doesn't have the time.  So basically, I read it, told him some things I was reading and then pointed out the 2 chapters I felt were really important that he should read.

Nesting is really starting to descend upon me.  This is evident by the fact that I have cleaned the bath tub more times in the last 3 weeks than I did in the last 3 months, the laundry is all caught up and folded, and I'm having a really strong urge to scrub (by hard) all non-carpeted surfaces.

I've been fighting the urge to nest because I feel like one of the best defenses against getting sick is to rest and drink as many fluids as I can stand.  So far, this is working for me.  I thought a lot of people were sick last week, but it only got worse as the days progressed.  Barely anyone in my office is healthy at the moment.  I feel doomed.  It's likely to strike at the worst possible moment (like right before my baby shower or my maternity pictures or something).

Wish me luck staying healthy!